The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) assailed Benigno Aquino III for feigning bellicosity towards China only to drum up a scenario for justifying the continuing buildup of US military forces in the Philippines and the rest of the Asia-Pacific. The CPP issued this statement a day after Aquino declared that his goverment "will not back down from any challenge" in asserting Philippine claims over the Spratly islands and other South China sea land formations.

The CPP reiterated its view that "the Filipino people have both historic and legal claim over the Spratlys and are fully justified in denouncing China's incursions into Philippine territories."

"The CPP deplores China's recent aggressive transgressions in the Spratlys but is also acutely aware that such measures are a reaction to the campaign of encirclement being carried out by US naval forces over the past two years against China and to the fact that the Philippines is being used a base for aggressive US operations in the Asia-Pacific," pointed out the CPP.

"The aim of the US imperialists is to apply economic, political and military pressure to force the further opening up of China's economy to the dumping of US surplus goods and contain its growth as a military force."

"Instead of asserting Philippine independence and non-alignment, the Aquino regime has sided openly with the US military in its campaign of aggression against China by allowing US warships, submarine tenders, jetfighters and other war machines to stream into the Philippines and use the country as an outpost for its operations in the South China Sea and the rest of the Asia-Pacific," said the CPP.

"By letting the US Pacific Command use the Philippines as its military base, the Aquino regime has provoked China and put the Philippines in China's crosshairs," said the CPP.

"The Filipino people must not be drawn into Aquino's feigned bellicosity against China and demand that the his government uphold the policy of non-alignment in order not to allow the country to be caught in the brewing tensions between the US and China," said the CPP. "They must demand and end to the permanent presence of US troops in the Philippines and an end to the use of the Philippines as a naval outpost of the US military."

The CPP further lambasted Aquino for hypocritically invoking the legacy of the Filipino revolutionary heroes to make claims of defending freedom and sovereignty when he is in fact extremely subservient to the US imperialists. Aquino made these claims in a speech yesterday at Liwasang Bonifacio in line with the 115th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence.

"The Filipino people consider it extremely execrable for Aquino to invoke the name of Andres Bonifacio in calling for national unity under the present puppet republic," added the CPP. "Benigno Aquino III is a political descendant, not of Bonifacio, but of the old ilustrados who arrogated the victory of the Katipunan armed revolt and surrendered it to the US imperialists in exchange for a few million dollars and positions under the new colonial regime."

"Aquino is absolutely subservient to the US imperialists, the same imperial force that took away the country's national freedom, imposed its brutal colonial rule for more than four decades and only 'granted' Philippine freedom after having cultivated a new generation of subservient leaders that could ensure its continued economic, political and military dominance."